


Stop The Noise

by junkster



Category: Arctic Monkeys
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-29
Updated: 2013-10-29
Packaged: 2017-12-30 21:44:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1023739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junkster/pseuds/junkster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Intending to have a bit of 'me time' in the bathroom, Alex had left them sleeping on the bed. They were supposed to be <i>asleep</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stop The Noise

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by my good friend Charlie, who came up with the original idea of Alex's solo mission.

He’s not ready for it when the light switches on, not expecting any company when he’s got his hand wrapped around his cock and his eyes closed and his mouth open, panting in the silence. 

He freezes when the darkness behind his eyelids turns red, his heart lurching in fear, his blood pulsing loudly in his ears. He cracks his eyes open and the first thing he sees is his own guilty, turned on face in the mirror over the sink. It’s still dim in there, just a couple of those daft spotlights in the ceiling shining down and highlighting him in all his bare-arsed glory, and Matt’s there by the door, one finger still on the first of the two switches that had turned them on. Nick’s by his side, his eyes fixed on Alex as he slowly closes the door again behind him.

Alex is pretty sure he should be doing something, like turning his back on them or pulling up his boxers which are pooled around one ankle on the floor, or saying something, like ‘fuck the fuck off!’, but the way they’re staring at him has him pinned. Any second they’re going to start laughing, or shield their eyes and retreat, only Matt’s suddenly going in the wrong direction for that, he’s coming _closer_ , a serious look in his eyes that Alex isn’t used to seeing.

He moves around behind Alex’s back, circling him as Nick comes back to life too, padding barefoot across the tiles until they’re on either side of him, flanking him, tall and broad and strong, intimidating in their silence. They’re both just in their boxers and a t-shirt, as they had been when he’d left them sleeping on the bed with the tv turned down low. Matt’s is blue, Nick’s is green, and he can feel them radiating warmth, their bare arms brushing against his. 

He stands still, submissive and bewildered as he meets Nick’s eyes in the mirror, pale and unblinking and drinking him in. He jumps when Matt takes both of his hands and pulls them around behind his back, holding his wrists with just one hand and hooking the other arm around his neck, laying it over the line of his collar bones, holding him close. 

Nick slips a hand under his t-shirt to press over his belly, and he startles at the feel of not only Nick’s sturdy fingers but the rasp of his wrist brace as well, a patch of velcro scraping lightly across his skin. 

Leaning in, Nick bumps his forehead to Alex’s temple, just above his ear, whispering a “Sorry,” as he pulls his hand away and starts tearing open those velcro straps one by one. As the whole thing comes loose he tosses it onto the side of the sink and Alex stares at the red indented lines it’s left, criss-crossing the inside of his wrist.

Nick reaches out with that hand to touch his chin, turning his head with a finger and leaning in, not even giving him time to think about it before kissing him softly on the mouth. Alex closes his eyes, humming happily at the warm press of lips, the taste of toothpaste, the strong hand cupping his jaw. On his other side, he feels fingers brushing his hair away from his neck, then Matt’s mouth is on the curve of his shoulder, teeth biting down, tongue sliding across the mark.

And fuck, that’s another thing entirely. Because he’s snogged all of them before, playing games, being bored, just seeking out a little comfort, but none of them have ever bitten him before (except that one time when a drunken Jamie had chomped down on his arm mid-wrestle), and they’ve certainly not licked him before. 

Nick lets him go and Alex gazes at him breathlessly for a long moment before turning his head to look at Matt, finding him right there, dark blue eyes watching him. Alex takes the initiative this time and closes the gap to kiss him, tugging ineffectually at Matt’s grip on his wrists, his entire body attempting to curl in on itself as Nick trails the tips of his fingers slowly from his hip to his thigh and back again. 

“Ah, fuck,” he gasps against Matt’s mouth, pressing their foreheads together as he shivers from head to toe. He’d been close when they’d walked in on him and he hasn’t lost any of that, still hard and leaking and desperate, and Nick’s hand sliding across his belly just makes him want to thrust his hips against thin air. 

“Touch me, touch me, _touch me_ ,” he mantras with closed eyes and a creased brow, addressing either of them, or both of them, he doesn’t care, he just needs - 

The sound he makes when Nick’s hand wraps around him is obscene and needy in the silence, but the only thing he cares about right then is Nick and his hand, and that wonderful swirling arousal in his abdomen, and Matt, stroking his hair and pressing hot kisses over his collar bone. Turning his head again, he looks up into the mirror and sees it all in sharp, spotlit glory - the scruffy back of Matt’s head, the wide, black pools of his own eyes, and the anticipation in Nick’s expression, his hand big and solid around Alex’s cock, just holding him like he’s savouring the feel of it. 

Matt leans his head against Alex’s shoulder and looks, his free hand sliding down, down. Nick moves away as though to give him space, and Alex’s momentary disappointment not to have both of them touching him at the same time is swept away by the ecstatic flip-flop his stomach does when Matt’s fingers curl around him, stroking once, twice, slowly. He closes his eyes again and drags in a ragged breath, trying to work out why this isn’t freaking him out. Because it’s _Matt_ of all people, who he’s known since they were tiny, who he loves with every fibre of his being, but who he never expected to touch him like this. Maybe he should be freaking out, maybe it should be weird, but it’s _not_. It’s just incredibly hot. 

“Here,” Nick says softly, and it’s so strange to suddenly hear his voice after the silence, so familiar. Alex feels Matt’s grip on his wrists loosen and then disappear altogether, and when he opens his eyes it’s to see him holding out a hand as Nick squirts complimentary hotel hand lotion into his palm. It’s been sitting on the sink all the time, he realises, next to the handwash, and he can’t help but laugh breathlessly as the scent of oranges fills the air. Nick meets his eyes in the mirror again and he grins slightly, and Matt’s smirking, and suddenly everything feels normal, they’re just Matt and Nick, pressed up against him.

Just Matt and Nick, curling hot, slick hands around his cock like they’ve done it a hundred times before. His knees go weak when they touch him together, Matt’s hand low around the base, Nick’s in front, the heat of their palms and the calluses on their fingers enough to make him let out a stuttering gasp, eyes slamming shut as he tips his head back and thrusts his hips forwards. He grabs the front of Matt’s t-shirt with one hand and the front of Nick’s with the other, curling his fingers tightly into the warm cotton as Nick slides a slick thumb over the head of his cock, nerves fizzing and sparking low in his belly. 

“Oh, oh _fuck_ ,” he utters in quiet disbelief, unable to stop a soft, broken whine when Matt presses a kiss under his ear, tongue licking a stripe across the thrumming ridge of his jugular. 

He looks down at their arms, crossing the creased lines at the tops of his thighs, at the corded muscles that flex with every twist of their wrists. When he looks back up at the mirror he sees Nick with his head down, gaze on what he’s doing, curls spilling over his eyes, but Matt’s looking right at him in the reflection, eyes burning into him. Alex holds his stare, lips parted as he breathes hard, his legs feeling like they might give out underneath him. Matt nuzzles a kiss against his ear, only looking away finally when he dips his head and starts licking and sucking at that bruised bite he’d made earlier. 

Something starts building up in Alex’s chest like static, or a long high whine of feedback, and the blood rushing in his ears is so loud he doesn’t even realise when he makes a cry of release, stifled by biting his lip, his hips thrusting instinctively as he comes hard and fast, hot and wet in Nick’s hand. Matt loops his other arm around his waist to hold him steady and Alex reaches blindly for Nick and kisses him through the aftershocks that dart through his stomach and down, his heart trying to pound its way out through his ribcage. He buries a hand in Nick’s hair, soft and extra curly since he’d washed it after the show that night, and Nick kisses him back and tries not to get lotion and come all over the front of Alex’s t-shirt, holding his hands away from his body. Alex gets this surge of affection that makes him laugh, buzzing against their lips until he pulls away, dropping his head to Nick’s shoulder and letting it go, gleeful and giddy with relief. 

“I think we broke him,” Matt muses from behind, and his voice is so utterly normal it makes Alex grin broadly, dazedly, against the warmth of Nick’s neck.

“I think he really, really needed to get off,” Nick agrees thoughtfully, walking Alex backwards carefully and sitting him down on the closed toilet seat, dropping a towel into his lap to clean himself up with. Alex slumps back and closes his eyes, heart still racing as he sighs with relief, watching the patterns of light and shadow dash across the insides of his eyelids. 

The sound of running water rouses him and he watches as they wash their hands, their shoulders bumping as they share a grin, and then Matt presses a damp hand to Nick’s chest and pushes him around and up against the wall gently, stepping in close and kissing him briefly, the other hand curling around the curve of his ribs. Nick sighs when he pulls away, his ribcage dipping under Matt’s palm. He reaches up, tucking his hair back behind his ear and then cupping Matt’s jaw, thumb stroking across his stubble as they kiss again, deeper this time. Matt makes a rumbling, groaning happy noise as he tilts his head, jaw working subtly as he licks across Nick’s tongue and the roof of his mouth, hand slipping down and under the hem of his t-shirt, pressing over the hot skin of his side.

Nick doesn’t make a sound, but he drops an arm around Matt’s waist and hooks him in closer, fingers splaying wide across the base of his spine, rucking his t-shirt up and revealing the bony curve of his vertebrae to Alex. 

They’ve done this before. That much is crystal clear to Alex, and he’s surprised by how much he wants to see it, how transfixed he is, considering it’s barely ever crossed his mind before (barely...not never. He can’t honestly say never). He’s surprised by how turned on _they_ are, too, both hard as hell in their boxers, and that he could’ve had anything to do with that excites him beyond belief.

Nick breaks it off first, keeping his eyes closed as he bumps his temple against Matt’s and tries to catch his breath, his hand still stroking the sharp line of Matt’s spine. He’s still recovering slightly from a stinker of a cold and he has to breathe through his mouth, shoulders rising and falling heavily with every soft gasp. Matt’s hand rubs up and down his sternum as he pulls back enough to look at him, his eyes soft and fond and a multitude of other things that make something tug happily in Alex’s chest. As his breathing slows, Nick swallows once and then opens his eyes, huge and pale green in the strange light. He smiles when he sees Matt’s expression, all dimples and endearing shyness, and Matt smiles slowly back at him, bringing his hand out from under Nick’s t-shirt and reaching up to tug gently at one of his curls. 

“Nearly suffocated me,” Nick tells him quietly, his voice soft and low in the silence.

“Not usually my tongue that does that.” 

Nick looks down and laughs and Alex stares, because no, no way, they have _not_ done that. 

The look on Matt’s face says otherwise, though. 

His brain supplies him neatly and swiftly with the image of Nick dropping to his knees and oh, god. Apparently he makes some kind of noise because Matt glances sidelong at him slyly and tuts. 

“The boy’s under the weather, mate. Don’t over face him, eh?” 

Alex bites his lip and shifts his eyes to Nick, who, with his head leaning back against the wall, rolls it to the side to look at him and just smiles slightly. He’s incredibly hard, boxers leaving nothing to the imagination, and Alex feels like one of those characters in the cartoons, like his tongue’s probably just hit the floor as he stares.

“You ought to see it, though,” Matt adds, voice low as he presses his hips up against Nick’s, rubbing slowly up against him. “Or have a go, if you’re lucky.” 

Alex swallows thickly, tries to gauge whether they’re fucking with him or not. 

“Imagine burying your hands in those curls, eh?” Matt continues, smirking. “Imagine it.” 

“Oy,” Nick says with quiet amusement, poking him in the belly and making him yelp. “Stop whoring me out.” 

“You just wanked him off!” 

“So did you!”

“We’re not talking about me, Mal.” 

“You’re the one with the big bloody mouth, maybe we should be.” 

They're both grinning at each other and Alex sits forward over his knees, propping his elbows on his thighs and pressing the knuckles of one hand to his mouth. Matt gives a rolling thrust that makes Nick tip his head back, his eyes closing blissfully as Matt uses both hands to pull them out of their boxers, wrapping them up in a tight grip and thrusting again between his own calloused fingers, his knuckles bumping Nick’s belly with every slide. Nick kisses him, open mouthed and hungry, and makes a desperate sound that Alex is pretty sure he’ll never forget, his hand curling around Matt’s forearm where the lines of muscle stand out in sharp relief. 

Matt reaches out blindly with his other hand and cups his palm under the lotion bottle on the sink, jabbing his thumb down on the spout three times over. He releases his grip on them with the other hand and for a moment just pins Nick to the wall with his whole body, trapping their cocks between their bellies, their lips barely touching as they just breathe together, Nick’s eyes closed, Matt’s open and predatory.

He finds Nick’s right arm where it’s pressed back against the wall and slides his clean hand down to his wrist, rubbing just over his pulse for a second before moving further to link their fingers together, palms flush. He brings the other hand over from the sink and shifts his hips back enough to wrap them up in that new, hot, slick grip, both of them cursing raggedly and thrusting instinctively into his hand.

Alex finds himself perched on the edge of the toilet seat, devouring every inch of what they’re doing with his eyes. And it’s not like he’d ever expected to see it, but nothing about it weirds him out. His heart’s still going berserk in his chest and all he can think is how much he wants to make both of them curse like that; how much he wants to be in both of their positions right now. 

“C’mon,” Matt’s mumbling against Nick’s mouth, biting on his lower lip gently before letting go, his hand working them quickly now. “C’mon, c’mon,” he says, then adds with a quirk of a grin, “c’mon me.” 

Nick huffs a laugh and brings his hand up from Matt’s back to his nape, curling his thumb around to press and rub just under his ear in a way that makes Matt shudder visibly, his eyes closing as he presses his face against Nick’s throat and groans. 

They come together like it’s a bloody porno (not that Alex has ever watched frot vids, of course), a crescendo of gasping, bitten-off cries of pleasure and swear words and groans, Nick’s hand clutching Matt’s neck tightly, their bodies pushing and sliding against each other as they try to wring every last bit of sensation out of it. They pant against each other’s throats, chests heaving for air. 

Matt’s hips give one last twitching jerk against Nick’s and they find each other’s mouths, barely able to kiss since they’re breathing so hard, just brushing lips and bumping noses, eyelashes soft and dark against the washed-out paleness of their cheeks.

Alex gets to his feet and slides a hand onto Matt’s shoulder, unprepared for the raw, sated, sexed up look in those blue eyes as they turn to meet his. He tries to speak and fails, just hands him the towel instead and then sits back down, watching as Matt blinks down at the fluffy white thing and takes a moment to realise what he’s supposed to do with it. 

There’s something weirdly tender about watching him clean them up, and Alex fixes his gaze on Nick’s face, turned towards him with eyes half open, his lips parted as he catches his breath. 

“You two were s’posed to be asleep,” he says stupidly. “I came in here for a nice peaceful wank…”

Tossing the towel into the sink and tugging his and Nick’s boxers back up, Matt tells him, voice a little hoarse, “You’re not as quiet as you think, mate.”

“You didn’t lock the door,” Nick points out lazily, his own voice a low rumble, then offers, “Cookie’s still asleep, though.”

“Is he gonna flip out if he walks in here?”

“For us not waking him up, yeah.” 

Alex stares and Matt looks at him like he’s daft. 

“You don’t think he’s clueless to all this, do you? If he’d been awake he’d have been right in here with us, believe me.” 

“You mean I were the only one who were clueless?” 

“We’ve been waiting for you to say you want in,” Matt says, throwing up his hands. “We’ve been waiting ages!”

“You what?!”

“Fuck,” Matt says, sharing a look of disbelief with Nick. “You honestly had no idea? We wouldn’t’ve barged in here and done what we did if we’d known you really didn’t know.” 

“We got impatient,” Nick says warily. “We thought maybe you were waiting for us to make the first move.” 

“Yeah,” Alex says, shaking his head in wonder as he looks between them. “You would’ve been waiting a bloody long time if you hadn’t.” 

They share another look and this one’s uncertain and vaguely panicked, and Alex holds out his hands.

“I didn’t mean…” he stops, shakes his head again. “Not because I didn’t want you to do what you just did. Just because...I didn’t think it were ever on the cards, y’know? Can’t say I hadn’t ever thought about it, but I had no idea you were all getting off with each other behind my back!”

“Not behind your back,” Matt reasons. “It were just...it just started happening.”

Nick asks suddenly, his eyes full of curiosity, “What did you think about, then?”

“Eh?” Alex asks warily, though he realises instantly what Nick’s after. 

Nick smiles, and Matt’s caught on now too, shifting his hip against the sink as he folds his arms. “You said, ‘I can’t say I hadn’t ever thought about it’.”

“Oh, right. Well, that’s between me and my fist, isn’t it?”

“You thought about us while you got off?”

“No, fuck, no,” he says, looking away for a second, sighing in frustration. “Maybe. Yeah. Well it’s sort of hard not to when you’re with me all bloody day. Try and picture some leggy brunette and I end up thinking about one of you lot.” 

“Yeah,” Nick agrees, waving a finger between himself and Matt. “That’s why we ended up where we did.” 

“Which were where, exactly?” 

“In my bed,” Matt says, with a smirk that makes Nick rolls his eyes. 

“When?” Alex asks, then ticks off on his fingers, “Where, and why?”

“‘Bout a month ago, in Paris, because we were both randy as hell.”

“Fuck, I would’ve liked to have seen that,” he says earnestly, and he means it, he really means it when he adds, “Would’ve liked to have been in the middle, actually. Who started it?”

“Helders decided it were a good idea to play spin the bottle at two in the morning when we got in from the club,” Nick says with a sigh. “We were too hammered to see the flawed logic in that.” 

Alex smirks at that, stifling it with his hand. “So you just did it anyway?”

“It was a good idea,” Matt defends himself, “just...you know. We had to make do with each other. Only ‘making do’ turned into...making out.” 

Smiling at the thought, Alex nods at them and says hopefully, “Do it again. For me.”

“You’ll have to give us ten minutes, mate, shit,” Matt retorts with a smirk. 

Alex starts to laugh as a broad smile crosses Nick’s face. “Snog each other, you tosser.” 

The pair of them share a look, and Nick’s the one who makes the move this time, crowding Matt back against the sink and kissing him firmly, hands sliding up underneath his t-shirt and pressing palm-flat over his belly. Matt tilts his head into it, wrapping his hands tightly around Nick’s hips, pulling him as close as he can. 

Nick hooks a thumb under the waistband of Matt’s boxers and tugs just enough for that side to fold down over itself, then brushes his fingers upwards, pushing Matt’s t-shirt up to reveal the sharp jut of his hipbone to Alex’s gaze. 

And Alex knows it’s for his benefit, since they’ve both got their eyes closed. 

Matt slips his hand under his own t-shirt, taking hold of Nick’s right arm and pulling it out from underneath, his fingers curling gently around his wrist, enclosing that damaged joint and just holding it between their chests. It’s sweet, and protective, and Alex finds himself smiling when Nick lets the side of his hand rest against Matt’s chest, fingers curled over. 

The kiss is slow, and deep, and goes on and on until Nick has to pull away again, dropping his forehead to Matt’s shoulder as he drags in desperate breaths, sounding hollow in the space between them. Matt slides his hand around from Nick’s side to his back, stroking up and down slowly as he presses a kiss to his temple.

“Easy, Mal,” he murmurs, spreading his fingers wide between Nick’s shoulder blades. “Don’t pass out, eh?” 

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Nick wheezes, making him grin. 

Alex, who’s busily trying ignore the fact that he’s half hard again already, asks, “So, is this, like...what is this, exactly? And where do I come into it? And am I still fucking dreaming or what?” 

Still stroking up and down Nick’s spine, Matt shrugs slightly. “It’s just good, isn’t it? Fun. We all love each other, don’t we?”

“Yeah,” Alex says with a shrug of his own. 

“And we’re all young and horny and overly testosterone’d up, yeah?”

“Yeah.” 

“Not to mention pretty,” Matt adds, watching carefully as Nick, just about recovered, props himself back against the wall, boneless and languorous.

“Dead pretty,” Alex agrees, following his gaze.

“So it makes sense, doesn’t it? When you’re gagging for it but you want something easier and safer than groupies, who’s always to hand? Us. And what’s the best way of working out a bit of tension without smacking each other around a bit?” 

Alex bites at the edge of one of his fingernails as he murmurs, “You make a convincing argument, lad. But have you, I mean...fuck, how far has this gone?” 

Matt shifts his gaze slyly over to Nick. “You’d have to ask this one and sleeping beauty.” 

Alex sits up, eyes big as he looks at Nick, who’s busy glaring sidelong at Matt. “You didn’t…?”

“They did,” Matt says gleefully, “and I got to watch! Oh, you missed a fucking treat, Al.” 

Alex follows the shift of Nick’s eyes, changing rapidly from annoyance to resignation to uncertainty, his gaze hitting the floor under their scrutiny, his left hand curling around his right elbow.

“Fuck me, Mal,” Alex says quietly. “I would’ve killed to be in on that.”

Nick lifts his eyes just enough to look at him, searching for reassurance, as though everything Alex has said and done in the last half an hour still hasn’t convinced him he’s safe. 

“Did you…” Alex begins, then tails off and tries instead, “Were it you, or...did he...?” He curses his lack of eloquence, the fact that he can’t say it for some reason. 

Nick gives him a small, crooked smile and says it for him, his voice soft and raw. “He fucked me.” 

“Oh, god,” Alex says, stomach flipping. “Oh, god, d’you know how hot that is?” He wrings his hands, bringing one up to bite down on a knuckle.

“You shoulda seen it, mate,” Matt speaks up, voice reverent. “Never been so fucking turned on in my life.” 

“Fuck off,” Nick tells him softly, lifting a hand to rub the back of his neck. 

“I’m serious!”

“Didn’t you like it?” Alex asks Nick quietly, a little wary of the answer.

“Yeah,” Nick says, then, after a short pause, “Yeah. I more than liked it.” 

“You’d’ve thought Jamie would be a bit, y’know,” Matt says, smacking his fist against his palm. “A bit hard and fast, like. But it were like he were making it last, all slow and careful.” 

Alex is pretty sure Nick’s blushing now, but his hair’s hanging over his face, hiding everything as he mutters, “I’m not delicate, Helders, fuck.” 

“I know,” Matt says, holding up a hand. “I know. Fuck, you were braver than me and Jamie - you volunteered to go first. And you didn’t...I mean, you just took it, like it were nothing. And it’s not nothing, as we all know.” 

That gets a little wry smirk out of Nick, who tucks his hair back behind his ear and takes a step across the room to sit on the edge of the bath, hands clasped between his legs. 

Alex feels himself moving suddenly too, getting to his feet, relieved to find his knees have regained their strength. He pads over to stand in front of Nick, between his feet, looking down at him as he looks up, his eyes big and bold and wary up close. 

“How did you do it?” he asks quietly, reaching out to tuck the other side of his hair back. 

“Like this,” Nick says, looking down Alex’s body and back up slowly. “Me on my back. Cookie between my legs.” 

Alex bites his lip, ostensibly to stop the desperate little sound that wants to escape his mouth. Just the thought of it, of Jamie, who’s asleep just metres away from them, doing that to Nick. Nick, who’s looking up at him with such innocent looking eyes, who he’d thought he knew everything about, but who’s suddenly like a complete fucking mystery. And Matt, who’d sat there and watched it all, big blue eyes devouring all of it, the lucky fuck. He sits down by Nick’s side, curling his hands over the edge of the bath, his little finger pressed against Nick’s.

“What did it feel like?”

“I...” Nick falters, lifting a hand to rub across his eyes and sighing. “I don't know. Like he set my spine on fire or something.”

Alex takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. “Did it hurt?”

Nick tilts his head from one side to the other in a ‘so-so’ gesture, then reconsiders and nods instead, admitting, “Yeah. But not...I mean, it were worth it.”

“Did he kiss you?” 

“Yeah.”

“Did he *touch* you?”

Nick turns his head to look at him in question and Alex says softly, “I’m just trying to picture it. I _need_ to picture it.”

Looking down at his hands, twisted together in his lap, Nick takes a long moment to answer. “I went from being scared of Jamie, to having my mind blown by him, to not wanting to let go of him, all in the space of an hour.”

“‘Intense’ doesn’t even begin to describe it,” Matt adds quietly, moving to sit by Alex’s side, lining them all up along the side of the bath. “They forgot I were even there, I think.”

Nick shakes his head, leaning forwards slightly to look at him. “No. I'm glad you were there, mate.” 

“You’re not scared anymore, are you?” Alex asks, trailing his fingers slowly up the inside of Nick’s forearm, following the veins to his elbow. 

Nick leans back again to look at him, long and thoughtful, his eyes bright with the reflection of the spotlights above them, and he shakes his head slowly.

Alex gazes right back at him, unable to blink. “When did you do it?” 

“Last week,” Nick says, looking away finally, over towards the mirror. “You were out clubbing.” 

“Friday, then,” Alex realises quietly, following his gaze and finding all three of them looking the same way. “I thought you all seemed quiet the next day, I thought you were pissed off with me for something.” 

“We had a lot to think about, I suppose.”

“So is Cookie gonna let you return the favour, then, or what?” 

“He said he would,” Nick says with a shrug, his eyes slightly wistful as he looks down at his bare feet on the tiles. “I don’t know.” 

“He will,” Matt predicts with certainty, tapping his right foot on the floor in a steady rhythm. “He’s probably waiting for you to ask.”

“We could do it side by side,” Alex suggests with sudden enthusiasm, “I mean, all four of us. Big hotel king sized bed, us paired up, side by side...how good would that be?”

“You’ve only just found out about this,” Matt says, slinging an arm around his shoulders, “and already you want an orgy.”

“Aim high, Helders, aim high,” Alex tells him with a nod, winding an arm around his waist and the other around Nick’s. “Now, what say we go and wake up Jamie, eh?”


End file.
